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Question: I would like to start researching my family tree, what is a good way to start!?
I would like to put together a book, for my daughter, of everyone in our family!. Where do I start to find the information that I would need, other than asking my family!. I plan on asking them stuff, too!.
I would like to have all the important dates (birth, marriage, death) along with where they lived, what schools they went to, interesting notes about them, and what they did for work!. I'm sort of hoping to make a page on each person!. Photos would be great too, but, I'm sure that's almost impossible!.
Anyone have any advice on where I should begin!? Or any advice on how to go about doing this!? I'm sure it's going to take me years, it's a pretty big project and my family is quite large!. Thanks in advance!
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Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
I'm 73 years old!. 20 years ago I began to gather information while I was putting together a box full of notes, I have made since I married in 1957!.
You have to start somewhere and I suggest you start with yourself!.
I wrote the history of my life, and also wrote the history of my mother and her ancestors!. I have several different writings on my philosophy of life!.
Then I wrote and compiled a 500 page book on my father and his ancestors!.
When I started my fathers, I wrote letters and made phone calls to all my 50 plus cousin's and ask for their help!. My father was one of 11 brothers and sisters!. I grew up knowing all of them so I could have written about all myself, but half of his siblings kids/my cousin did help!.
They wrote their history and their fathers and each of these cousins brought boxes of pictures and with two printers, we scanned their pictures!. the grand kids wrote of their memories and some had already written things and some poetry too!.
I wrote for the cousins that didn't participate and I ended up with pictures of them too!.
This book of my fathers ancestors ended up being 500 pages including the pictures!. also maps census records and other documents!.
This was thee biggest and most rewarding challenge I have ever met in my lifetime!.
If you just get your own done, the rest will fall in place!.
You can get books where you hand write the answers and that works!.
Visit a book store and see if they have a book on questions!.
If you have works, I think there is a template to start writing your history!.
Wish I could be of more help!.
DeeJay!.
Search for ancestors!.
http://www!.archives!.gov/genealogy/about-!.!.!.
http://genealogy!.about!.com/cs/beginnersc!.!.!.
http://usgenweb!.org/research/starting!.sh!.!.!.
http://www!.familysearch!.org/eng/default!.!.!.!.
You have a lot of good answers!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
ancestry!.com can help!. you need to find ahelp from a geneolgist also!. its fun to try and look up stuff and its time consuming but worth it i have a great person in our family doing just that!. there are so many places to look and you can find out stuff but you have to work hard and sometimes it helps to know some of the family and get stories and doucment fromt hem beforethey die!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
There is a lot of good information on the LDS genealogy website!. The most extensive in the country!. Ancestry!.com is the website I believe!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Start asking your pop pop questions about your family!. He'll know!Www@QuestionHome@Com
I subscribed to Ancestry!.com and found a ton of stuff!. It was really worth my money!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
You would want to find a main site for records!. Many of us subscribe to www!.ancestry!.com as this site!. Another secondary site is www!.familysearch!.org!. They are beginning to upload images of records so visit often!.
Look for online trees that might end up being part of yours!. A good site is www!.gencircles!.com!. Ancestry has this too!.
Look for mailing lists for each of your main surnames!. www!.rootsweb!.com, take the link at the top for mailing lists and follow the directions to subscribe!. While on that page you might want to search the older emails for your people!. In addition, from the first page, look for the worldconnect link to find other trees!.
Look for the main sites for the states and counties you will research in!. www!.usgenweb!.org, choose your state, then your county!.
If you live in the area your relative lived in, go to the courthouse and get copies of as many records as you can!. I take a digital camera and take pictures of the pages so it doesn't cost me anything!.
Don't forget to just us google!. www!.google!.com is great and you will learn how to search for genealogical records!. For instance, put smith "cannon county" tennessee to get just the cannon county TN sites mentioning smith!. or John Smith obituary tennessee to find his obituary if its online!. You can get stories this way or cemetery locations, etc!.
Get stuck!? Just post the person's name, dates and locations!.Www@QuestionHome@Com